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June 06, 2011

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I wrote over the weekend about Michelle Rhee's hire of a prominent Democrat in an effort to step back from the partisan profile she'd developed.

But her education policy efforts are, ultimately, very focused on the confrontation with labor -- a confrontation now bound up with a broader new energy on the left -- and so last month in Tennessee she and Bill Frist very explicitly endorsed a piece of legislation aimed at rolling back union power, which passed last week, and while her editorial singled out the portion aimed at limiting seniority, local press reports make clear the legislation was much broader:

Tennessee teachers are losing their collective bargaining powers while corporations can now contribute directly to state and local political campaigns under two GOP bills signed into law Wednesday by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.

The collective-bargaining bill also bans the state teachers’ union, the Tennessee Education Association, from using members’ due for campaign contributions. Moreover, it appears to prohibit the 52,000-member organization from using teachers’ dues to lobby state lawmakers.

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Isn't that special!! ReTHUGlicans taking from the middle class as they pander to their rich base!!! When are the lower and middle classes ever going to realize that the reTHUGlicans are not their friend??!!!

Has left wingnut Ben Smith apologized in shame yet, for not knowing Paul Revere history (American history is somthing Liberals always clueless on) and moronically attacking Palin and Bachmann last week? Historians are sayin Palin was rite on...

Posted By: Has left wingnut Ben Smith apologized in shame yet, for not knowing Paul Revere history (American hi | June 06, 2011 at 10:26 AM

What does corporations contributing to state and local campaigns have to do with teachers losing bargaining rights. Why are those two things in the same sentence, as if they are equal factors? They're not.

Posted By: What does corporations contributing to state and local campaigns have to do with teachers losing bar | June 06, 2011 at 11:04 AM

There's a big difference in corporations contributing directly to state and political campaigns and the Tennessee Education Assoc. and the teachers unions doing the same. Corporations are contributing money that they have earned--i e THEIR MONEY, while the Tennessee Education Assoc. and the teachers unions are using their members dues money--i e OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. Since teachers--like the US population--are not all left-wingers, liberals, and rabit Democrat Socialists, as are the Tennessee Education Assoc. and teachers unions, many dues--paying teachers are forced to pay/contribute(?) to the political party and their candidates that they oppose politically. It's like a worker in the former USSR being forced to 'contribute'(?) a monthly stipend to the Communist Party, to keep it in power, and pay for it's expenses, or you lose your job.

Liberals hate Rhee for a very simple reason. Rhee wants to make teachers accountable for their performance. Teachers' Unions do not want teachers to be accountable for their performance. And liberals get too much money from Teachers' Unions to want anything their sugar daddy is against. Same old song. Liberals will sell you and your children out for the special interest groups that fund them.

Ben,
There was a reason that the editorial singled out that portion of the legislation: it was the part that StudentsFirst supported as part of its national push to end seniority based layoffs. If you want to understand the StudentsFirst position on collective bargaining, please reference Michelle's post in the HuffingtonPost on the matter. SF does not support the full repeal of collective bargaining rights for teachers.
Craig
Engagement Coordinator at StudentsFirst